The Night of Broken Glass (Kristallnach) and other events that followed, were aimed to systematically isolate Jews from society and drive them out of the country. After the September 1939 German invasion of Poland (the beginning of World War II), anti-Jewish policy escalated to the imprisonment and eventual murder of European Jews. The Nazis established ghettos, enclosed areas designed to isolate and control the Jews, and Polish and western European Jews were deported to these ghettos where they lived in overcrowded and unsanitary conditions with inadequate food.
Walling-off a street to isolate the Jews.
After the June 1941 German invasion of the Soviet Union, the Nazis began massive killing operations aimed at entire Jewish communities. By autumn 1941, they introduced mobile gas vans. These paneled trucks had exhaust pipes reconfigured to pump poisonous carbon monoxide gas into sealed spaces, killing those locked within.
On July 31, 1941, General Reinhard Heydrich was authorised to make preparations for the implementation of a "complete solution of the Jewish question". This operation was code named the "Final Solution". This was not a decision made without thought. Two and a half years ago, Hitler has already promised this extermination of Jews in front of the German parliament...
Click on big, bright blue arrow below to go back to the previous page.
